Loss of interest in life, a feeling of devastation and loneliness … Familiar symptoms? Psychotherapist Viktor Frankl considers them to be a sign of the «existential vacuum» that arises in the life of a modern person due to two reasons acting simultaneously. We no longer have the instincts that ensure the safety of the animal in the outside world, and we do not obey the traditions that guided our ancestors. We are free — but this freedom puts us before the need to independently seek the meaning of our existence. What is the meaning of my life? Why do I live? Lack of response leads to depression. But the answer found can be life-saving and even prolong life. Viktor Frankl believes that this is exactly what happened, for example, to the German poet Wolfgang Goethe: “During the last seven years of his life, he lived biologically beyond his limits. He delayed his death and remained alive until he had finished his work” (“Faust”). This book by Frankl was first published in New York in 1967 and has become a classic. Now we can read it in Russian as well.
IOI, 192 p., 2015.